Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
Foundation stone was laid for construction of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Sabroom of Tripura. It is the first SEZ of the state.
The SEZ is being built at a cost of Rs 635 crore and would focus on rubber, bamboo, textile and food processing. Sabroom is located at a distance of 130 km from Agartala, the capital of Tripura.

Notes:
A joint statement has been issued by USA, Israel and Bahrain which states that Israel and Bahrain have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties.
This is an outcome of a normalisation agreement between Israel and Bahrain which comes after a similar agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Earlier, an Israeli delegation was carried in the first direct commercial flight to UAE.

Notes:
China has successfully launched a solid-propellant carrier rocket from a ship in the Yellow Sea and successfully sent nine satellites into orbit.
This is the country’s second such sea-based launch mission. The tenth rocket of the Long March 11 family, the Long March 11-HY2 was launched carrying nine remote-sensing satellites belonging to the Jilin-1 Gaofen 03-1 group.

Notes:
World Ozone Day or ‘International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer’ is observed on September 16 all over the world.
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted and signed by 28 countries, on 22 March 1985. The theme of this year is ‘Ozone for Life’. This year also marks the 35th year of the Vienna Convention and 35 years of global ozone layer protection.

Notes:
The Supreme Court has ordered for setting up a panel of five distinguished citizens. The objective of the panel would be to set standards for electronic media.
This is pronounced by the Supreme Court in the context of the TV show “Bindas Bol” that is relayed on Sudarshan TV. The court has stated that the said TV programme appears to vilify the Muslim community and make it responsible for an attempt to infiltrate the civil services

Notes:
Britain’s Andy Murray who is former world number has been given a wildcard entry into the main draw of French Open.
This year’s French Open first round begins on 27th September. Murray is a three-time Grand Slam winner and a French Open finalist. He has not appeared at the event since 2017, when he lost to Stan Wawrinka.

Notes:
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package Insurance Scheme for Health Workers has been extended for a period of 180 days.
It is a central sector scheme that provides an insurance cover of Rs.50 lakh to health workers who would have direct contact with COVID 10 patients. The scheme was initially launched on March 30th this year for a period of 90 days. It was earlier extended to a further period of 90 days till 25th September.

Notes:
Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has recently released guidelines for schemes that include ‘Pottery Activity’ and ‘Beekeeping Activity’.
The Ministry had earlier announced expanding the support to Artisans engaged in making Agarbatti. Additional amount of Rs. 50.00 crore each has been provisioned for setting up of clusters in Pottery making and developing Beekeeping honey clusters under the SFURTI scheme of the Ministry.

Notes:
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revised India’s growth projections to minus 10.2% for the current financial year.
This is due to extended lockdown in the country. The OECD released a report titled “Interim Economic Assessment Corona virus: Living with uncertainty”. As per the report, prolonged spread of the virus, high levels of poverty, and stricter confinement measures are the reasons for contraction of the Indian Economy.

Notes:
The Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation was launched in the G 20 – Environment Ministerial Meeting (EMM) that was held in a virtual mode under the leadership of Saudi Arabia.
It aims to strengthen the implementation of existing guidelines on prevention of land degradation among the G20 member countries. In addition to the initiative on land degradation, the Global Coral Reef R&D Accelerator Platform was also launched which aims at R&D in all aspects of Coral Reef.